DEDICATED? OR JUST PLAIN NUTS?

The temp was in the low 30's. Not so bad, right? But the wind was brutal, as I violently discovered upon making my first turn directly into it. It was that jumping-in-ice-water, helicopter-rotor-wash kind of shocking cold. The kind of cold that, when it hits you, feels like you've been flattened by a runaway ice truck.

Soon after, my bare legs turning raw-beef red, I passed an older couple, out walking their dogs. They were bundled like Eskimos. One of them, a bearded fellow wrapped in Gore-Tex, looked at me as our paths crossed.

"Dedicated," he said, dryly. "Or as nutty as we are."

I just laughed. But it got me thinking about zealousness and overzealousness, and the fine line that often separates the two. Is it a coincidence that the word "discipline" can be a good thing (self-control) or a bad thing (punishment), depending on the context?

Or that "being committed," too, can be positive or, well, not so much?

I know it's relative, varying from person to person, and certainly from group to group. (Gardeners, I imagine, are accused of being crazy much less often than runners are; and runners less often than free solo climbers; etc.)

But seriously: Where do you draw the line, when it comes to your devotion to running?

How cold, or hot, or otherwise dangerous, does it have to be before you'll opt to skip a run?

What distance is "too far" for any reasonable runner to attempt: 26.2 miles? 50? 100?

How much does it have to hurt before you'll back off, during a race? If you vomited halfway through, would you drop out? Or spit, and keep running?

Would you miss a friend's wedding for a big race? A neighbor's funeral? A nephew's birthday party?